Josh Watts and the rest of the Oakdale High varsity boys basketball team get ready for another league contest this season.
IKE DODSON/THE LEADER

The memory of a 26-10 halftime deficit and away loss to Oakdale High’s varsity boys basketball team on Jan. 25 must not have been far from the minds of Sonora players on Feb. 8.

The host Wildcats avenged that prior defeat with a tenacious defensive approach, limiting Oakdale to single digits in every Sonora-dominated quarter. A 30-14 shellacking in the second half ensured a 53-28 win in Sonora favor.

Oakdale trailed by just six after a period and by only nine at the break, but were effectively silenced during an 11-5 Sonora run in the final frame.

The Mustangs surrendered a 17-point game high to six foot, seven inch center, Ben Bates, the tallest player in the Valley Oak League.

The loss drops Oakdale to 3-10 in the VOL and 9-17 overall. Oakdale received a bump to 25th on the latest release of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III power ratings, but will be well short of a playoff qualification.

The Valley Oak League could send as many as five teams to the postseason, and should see co-league champs Sierra and Weston Ranch nab top-five seeds in D-III. The two teams were top three in the latest release of the power ratings, but could struggle in the postseason against private school state power, Modesto Christian (currently fifth and unbeaten in the Division IV Trans-Valley League).